Carzy Zarx’s PC Gaming Emporium - Catch Up on All the Latest PC Gaming Related News

[JEMC]

The Wednesday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has three new deals:

• The first flash deal is Slime Rancher, 70% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/slime_rancher
• The second flash deal is Uru: Complete Chronicles, 70% off until Friday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/uru_complete_chronicles
• And the new Midweek Sale features up to 80% discounts for 4 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220413_midweek_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• Empyrion - Galactic Survival will be 50% off until April 18: https://store.steampowered.com/app/383120/Empyrion__Galactic_Survival/
• And Wobbledogs gets a 20% discount until the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1424330/Wobbledogs/

And Fanatical's new Star Deal is DEATHLOOP, 58% off during 24 https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/deathloop"> https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/deathloop

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Skyrim mod adds Red Dead Redemption 2's sketchbook journal
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/skyrim-mod-adds-red-dead-redemption-2s-sketchbook-journal/
One of the rather charming things about Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan is his habit of sketching some of the places he's been in his journal. Rather than just keeping a dry questlog, Arthur writes down his own story and adds drawings of some of the places he's been and the things he's seen.
Now your character in Skyrim can do the same—at least when it comes to the sketches. The Adventurers Sketchbook mod for Skyrim Special Edition adds a nice new journal to the RPG. If you carry it with you, when you visit certain notable or picturesque locations in Skyrim, a sketch of that place will be added to your journal. Ah, memories.

GAMING NEWS

Final Fantasy 14 is becoming more approachable as a solo experience
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/final-fantasy-14-is-becoming-more-approachable-as-a-solo-experience/
Patch 6.1 has just been released for Final Fantasy 14. It's the first major update for the game since the Endwalker expansion launched in December and has added a new 24-man raid, a new dungeon and its story is set to begin an entirely new story arc.

Vicarious Visions is now officially merged into Blizzard
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/vicarious-visions-is-now-officially-merged-into-blizzard/
Vicarious Visions, whose most recent games include Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, is no more. The studio announced today that it has now merged with Blizzard, and will work exclusively on Blizzard games.
>> A shame.

Deus Ex art director reveals new game about the horrors of humanity
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/deus-ex-art-director-reveals-new-game-about-the-horrors-of-humanity/
Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, known for his work as art director on Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, is heading up a new game called Hell Is Us at Rogue Factor, the developer of Mordheim: City of the Damned and Necromunda: Underhive Wars.

American Truck Simulator returns to its roots in the upcoming Montana expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/american-truck-simulator-returns-to-its-roots-in-the-upcoming-montana-expansion/
You won't find many more prosaically-named videogames than Euro Truck Simulator and its transatlantic cousin American Truck Simulator. They are exactly what it says on the box: Trucking sims set in the Europe and the US. (They are also exceptionally good.) But before SCS Software decided to take a more serious approach with its games, it released a bunch with somewhat more dramatic titles, like Big Rig Europe and Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel.
This is relevant now because those games, much like their newer cousins, benefitted from multiple expansions and sequels with equally exciting titles: Pedal to the Metal, Convoy, Haulin', and American Long Haul, to name a few. One of those sequels—Extreme Trucker 2—contained a map of the US state of Montana, which SCS is now reworking for American Truck Simulator.

Bugsnax is finally releasing on Steam, also coming to Game Pass
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bugsnax-is-finally-releasing-on-steam-also-coming-to-game-pass/
Bugsnax is about catching snack food-themed bugs—sandopedes, grapeskeetos, weenyworms—and feeding them to grumpuses, furry explorers who crave bugsnax and whose body parts become the bugsnax they consume. It's a cute, sweet, charming body horror game that released on PlayStation and the Epic Games Store back in 2020, and now it's finally about to hit other storefronts.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising lands on PC in early May
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/eiyuden-chronicle-rising-lands-on-pc-in-early-may/
For fans of the old Suikoden series, last year's reveal of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes was big news indeed. That 2023 JRPG will be a spiritual successor to the classic PS1-era series, and it brings a vibrant mix of 2D and 3D JRPG tropes to modern platforms. But if JRPGs aren't to your taste, and Metroidvanias are, Hundred Heroes' spin-off Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is probably more enticing. That smaller game now has a release date: May 10.
>> The article includes a 28 minutes long video of gameplay with developers commentaries.

Bungie will offer fully-remote options for 'most current and future roles'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bungie-will-offer-fully-remote-options-for-most-current-and-future-roles/
The Covid-19 pandemic might not be over, but 3 years in, it sure feels like society is ready to pretend that it is. But with Riot recently courting criticism by dropping vaccine and mask requirements as it asked developers to return to the office (and Activision quickly rolling back its own plans to end vaccine requirements), Bungie has decided that there's actually no good reason videogames can't be made remotely.

Become a cargo-smuggling space pirate in the No Man's Sky Outlaws update
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/become-a-cargo-smuggling-space-pirate-in-the-no-mans-sky-outlaws-update/
Twitter got all excited the other day when No Man's Sky creator Sean Murray posted a tiny pirate flag emoji. That's all it took for the hype to get dialed up as fans speculated this must be the dawn of some new space pirate update on the brink of release, with cargo smuggling, pirate missions, and black market features.
Turns out, a lot of that was correct. The new No Man's Sky update is called Outlaws and you'll finally be able to live the life of a space pirate in the infinite cosmos. No Man's Sky's seedy underworld will be explored in the update, including pirating missions, black-market technology, contraband smuggling, and pirate-run spaceports in outlaw star systems.

Scrabble, the original Wordle progenitor, launches a new web-based game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/scrabble-the-original-wordle-progenitor-launches-a-new-web-based-game/
April 13 is National Scrabble Day, and with word games all the rage right now thanks to the runaway success of Wordle, Hasbro and Mattel have teamed up with game developer Scopely to launch a new web-based version of the game at scrabble.com.

Weird West gets a zombie apocalypse mode and reveals update roadmap
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/weird-west-gets-a-zombie-apocalypse-mode-and-reveals-update-roadmap/
The dead are rising from their graves in Weird West, so of course that means cowboys have to get involved. The top-down immersive sim already thrives in its mix of supernatural and wild west influences, so adding a zombie apocalypse mode is right up its street.